There I sat at my computer, glued to the screen, running impossible calculations, plotting sequences and lines, preparing endlessly for what I must do. It had become my life, I would mark down ideas and concepts in my notebook at school then transcribe them online when I got home. My weekends were solely focused on my task, sitting in front of the computer for 12 hours a day or more. My life had been consumed wholly. I was preparing for the upcoming Pokemon Regional Championship, taking place in Salem Oregon on January 19th and 20th, 2013. The event hosted events for both the trading card and video games, and while I played the former, my focus was entirely on the latter.
I had won the year prior, though it was a minor feat given I resided in the division that attracted an impressive roster of about 30 players. We hadn’t even held a top cut, and after the 5 rounds of swiss I was declared the champion by going undefeated. Not that I wasn't excited or proud, but the accomplishment felt more hollow considering the small size of the event and the lack of prestige from having an actual top cut.
This year was going to be different though. More and more talented players sprung up near me, to the point that I was attending locals with a future world champion. I had leveled up massively in the previous year, spending hundreds of hours practicing. After an unfortunate bubble at 35th at nationals last year, I was determined to reach higher this year, not content to simply extend my reign over the region, but to make a deeper run at nationals after narrowly missing top cut.
Of the hundreds of hours spent practicing, a majority of it wasn’t even playing the game. It was falling in love with the meta-level complexity of the game. In other words, I had fallen in love with teambuilding and theorizing.
My Love of Games
I had always loved card games. I played Yu-Gi-Oh competitively when I was young, competing at high level events to middling success before falling out of the game due to family reasons. Eventually I discovered there were Pokémon tournaments, and as an avid fan of the games, attended my first one in Seattle in 2009. It was single elimination, and I managed to make it all the way to top 8 in my first ever event, falling short of top 4. From there I was hooked, and dedicated an incredible amount of time to the hobby.
I looked for locals, and found one that I attended for many years. It was hosted in a Round Table Pizza, and my first time going there was a single video game player who was not very competitive. Due to this, I decided to get into the Pokémon card game and played that competitively for a while, though my focus was primarily on the video game. I would show up to locals weekly on Monday nights from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, get my drink which was a mix of fruit-punch style soda combined with root beer (it tasted like liquid skittles), and sit down to jam games all night.
I was always the brewer, showing up to locals with a new deck every other week, reveling in the freedom and exploration the game offered. I played in competitive events, always going positive though not quite making any breakthroughs in terms of higher success. My closest time was losing a win-and-in to top cut in a state championship (Think a provisional in terms of UVS) with my pet deck, Scizor and Electrode prime during the Heartgold/Soulsilver format.
I developed my love of theorycrafting between both variations of Pokémon games, always wanting to play something out of the box that players didn’t expect. Games are a way of expressing creative freedom for me, and showing off something cool and unique was where I derived most of my fun. I was always looking for strategies that other players overlooked, and looked to hone those as much as possible. On the off-chance I did play something “meta”, I would always put my own spin on the archetype, from my hyper-offensive “totally-a-trick-room-team” in 2012 to my unique take on the Xerneas Kyogre team archetype in 2016.
Eventually I fell out of playing Pokémon competitively, both card and video games, though I still kept up to date with the happenings in the scene. If anyone has played the Pokémon card game, you know there is minimal to no interaction between players, leading to solitaire-like gameplay. The video game on the other hand had RNG (random number generator) that made the game unbearable at times, making the game inherently inconsistent to a potentially wild degree.
Back in 2018 I decided to get back into the card game as I needed a hobby and missed playing card games. I played competitively, though the Pokémon competitive circuit rewarded playing in as many big events as possible, and not having the budget to travel made it difficult to muster motivation to take it seriously given I couldn’t compete at the highest level. I still played and brewed extensively, creating unique decks I wish I could show off at larger events.
Then 2020 happened. With everyone stuck at home I was unable to play, especially as the online simulator for Pokémon card game was atrocious. I didn’t play for that year, though I did meet some friends online. Come 2021, with things opening up again one of my friends told me there was a locals running Pokémon events. I decided to give it a look, and got back into the game that summer.
One Saturday I showed up to locals, always at opening despite the event not starting for another two hours. It was a respite, a way to unwind and relax. This specific Saturday was special however. The store was hosting a prerelease event for this card game I had never heard of. It was called Universus, though everyone just called it by the IP it represented; My Hero Academia.
I was a mild fan of the anime, though I was hesitant to get into any anime card game as they usually are hastily designed and have minimal staying power. I watched as friends opened their packs and eventually started playing. I didn’t follow at first, watching without knowing the rules. I wasn’t too interested until a friend mentioned “It is like a fighting game”. I had gotten into fighting games earlier that year from the pestering of one of my best friends. I had primarily played Guilty Gear Xrd (Ramlethal main by the way), and dabbled in others such as Under Night In-Birth and Skullgirls.
I played in the Pokémon locals that day, though the thought stuck with me. If the card game was truly like a fighting game, I had to see what it was like as an avid game-design nerd. I went home that night and read the rulebook to learn how to play. Once, twice, thrice over I read it, getting more and more invested and interested with each passing. From there I was hooked, and decided to get into the game for real.
The thing that I learned quickly was how wonderfully the game was designed. Cards are intended to be playable regardless of rarity, making packs more valuable to get powerful un/commons, which was refreshing to say the least when a majority of Pokémon packs are purely bulk. The game was also incredibly well balanced in terms of representation, with every character being viable and having their own niche. Immediately I knew this was the game for me, allowing me to express my creative freedom to the fullest. And so, I started brewing…
The Creative Process of Deckbuilding
For those unfamiliar with the Pokémon video game I liken it to a card game, arguably one of if not the most complex ever invented. Your team is your deck, divided into six individual members, that all must work both alone, but together as well. When picking from a pool of theoretically hundreds, and having to account for opposing compositions with an equal number of varieties, simply the choice of which six you wanted to bring was a daunting task. When the potential movesets, stats, held items, and synergies all compound onto this, Pokémon teams have virtually infinite possibilities.
For example, let’s assume that you have 25 options of Pokémon to build a team of 6 with. That alone amounts to 177,100 possible team combinations. This may be disingenuous as you may not run certain Pokémon with others due to lack of synergy, but this also doesn’t take into account the fact that each Pokémon has its stats, items, and moveset to further differentiate itself from other variants of the same Pokémon. This also undercuts how many Pokémon are viable in any given format, which often exceeds the theoretical 25 mentioned. This makes teambuilding in Pokémon severely complex at best and near unapproachable at worst.
Thankfully more and more resources have been released to ease the burden, but a decade ago many of those resources didn’t exist. You could throw a team together to do fine, but no competitor wants to do “fine”, and thus my descent into madness began. Theorizing became my biggest pastime, jotting down concepts in my notebook at school to explore further when I had computer access at home, then testing those concepts and improving on my knowledge at the same time, amassing more and more data with every passing day.
Deckbuilding is a form of art, allowing each player to express themselves through the cards they run and how they play the game. It is a skill one must hone, it isn’t something you can simply pick up and do at a competent level. This is why netdecking is so prevalent, as not only do players want to play competitively proven lists, but it also eases the burden of entry into games and the ability for players who aren’t strong deckbuilders to play the game at a higher level by using optimized decks. If playing the game is having control of a metaphorical ball, deckbuilding is the fundamental understanding and implementation of the rules of the game, and how it applies to you and your hypothetical approach to the game.
The best way to get better at building is by doing it a lot, as with any other skill, though it has the additional investment of requiring you to play the game as well to analyze what you’ve built and update your knowledge base accordingly. Of course you can hone your building by not playing, though that makes it much more difficult to measure progress and feel like you’re improving.
Whenever I deckbuild, I always go through four essential steps for the process; The Concept, Premise, Actualization and finally Refinement. It forms the easy-to-remember acronym CP-AR, just like when resuscitating someone. I will explain these concepts and my deckbuilding process by showing off how I would build a deck, which is one of the options of my nationals short-list, Ochaco I!
Conceptualization
Every deck has to have a starting point, and the Concept is the very initial seed of the metaphorical deckbuilding life cycle. It is just as it sounds; the starting idea that forms the basis of your deck. The most basic concept is a simple “I want to play X card”, and in UVS this is a perfectly fine starting point, assuming the card you want to play is a specific character. This biggest issue with such a simple concept are the branching paths presented, such as what symbol you would like to play them on, and further what package or cards to run on that symbol.
Of course more in-depth concepts will help narrow down your initial exploration. Concepts such as “I want to play Y synergy” or “I want to run A, B, and C cards” inherently have a more solid foundation to start off on, as it limits you to specific symbols and predefines the gameplay you are looking to achieve within your deck.
Of course at this stage we aren’t thinking about what the rest of the deck will look like, just at what the starting point of the deck is. I often build by thinking of what combination of a character and core synergies I want to explore. I often find some two card synergy that I want to explore further, so I look to what character can support the synergy, or if the combo requires a character, what other cards can support that theme and compliment the synergy.
In terms of Ochaco I, all three of her symbols are solid, so I needed to pick a further direction. Something that has been a hot button topic is how dominant Repeated 100% Smash can be, and coincidentally it is a high attack which means Ochaco can zoop it to her momentum with her response to reuse it. This synergizes additionally with Back Alley Haymaker, one of Ochaco I’s best cards as it provides incredible value while also being recurable. Wind-Up Punch is another Charge-Punch that Ochaco can loop, while Heroic Strike is a convenient High attack that adds further board committal to the lineup. One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike is an additional punch Ochaco can run while also providing a unique way to play offense in the current meta, requiring a full block. Future Charge fits in as another potential option giving me even more draw power.
The Premise
With the concept of playing Ochaco I under Life with a solid Punch package, we move onto the second phase of deckbuilding; the premise. The premise is an expansion of the concept where you imagine what the goal of the deck is. The concept is a brainstorm of potential ideas, and the premise is organizing those ideas into a coherent gameplan.
Oftentimes concepts naturally lead into premises, such as the goal of the deck often being defined by what your concept is, though it isn’t always as natural. Open ended concepts such as “I want to play X character” require further refining into a premise, and the more narrow you can get your concept the easier it is to adjust into a full premise. Due to premises being the goal of the deck, they often end up with the answer to the question of “how do I win the game”, further boiling down to “how do I kill the rival”, which should be answered by the end of the premise.
Sometimes premises can be simple as well. If your concept is to run a specific attack, for example Indiscriminate Shock 1,300,000 Volts, the premise can fall into place, such as wanting to run as many board committal cards to make Indiscriminate Shock as large as possible to over-the-top your rival. This naturally adds more work down the line, so you need to hone the premise just as you did with the concept.
Another part of the premise is to identify what are the strengths and weaknesses of your concept. Furthering the Indiscriminate Shock example, some strengths would be that board committal reduces the amount of foundation-related interaction, while also having one of the most potent dunks in the format providing plenty of damage. Weaknesses would include the vast amount of stun hate in the current format which you are bound to run into, while also having low speed on your primary move.
Expanding on these strengths and weaknesses helps shape the direction of the premise, such as wanting to potentially run Seal effects to turn off stun hate, or making sure you can add speed to your moves as well to make sure they can still hit through committing your rivals board given Indiscriminate Shock’s low base speed. Premises can often refine themselves as long as you put work in to identify what angles you need to take during the next step.
From the concept of Ochaco I under Life Punches, the premise is a simple adaptation. The goal of the deck is to beat down the rival with a plethora of high value synergistic punch attacks. Back Alley Haymaker, Wind-Up Punch, and Heroic Strike means we have a solid board interaction, though the amount of stun hate reduces the effectiveness of these cards. Another part of the premise is the ability to out-value the rival, with a variety of resource-positive moves, with Back Alley Haymaker (again), Future Charge and Full Cowling 5% Strike all having draw effects, while Repeated 100% Smash allows me to keep my board ready and reuse any value effects we may build. Repeated specifically also keeps my board ready while extending with long strings, meaning the deck can accomplish more with fewer foundations than other decks, showing that the deck will likely lean more towards the aggressive side of the spectrum.
Actualization
Moving onto the third phase of deckbuilding, we have laid all the groundwork for the deck, yet we haven’t actually built anything. This is the step for that, as the goal is to work towards a playable list. With a refined premise there is already a variety of cards we are looking to include, and they are the first things we add to our deck when entering the actualization step.
When beginning to build a list, it can be overwhelming contemplating all of the available options. You may have a solid baseline for the attack lineup however it isn’t fully fleshed out, or you may have a simple premise that lends itself to only having a few cards that are core to the deck. There are several ways of tackling this, and one of the best ways is to break cards down into their card type, dividing your deck into the four types of main deck cards, with Actions, Assets, Attacks, and Foundations. Reviewing each of these categories by themselves helps reduce the mental burden of picking and choosing what cards to include.
From here there are several ways to expand it to a whole deck. The minimalist approach is the go through the card pool (by category) and adding the cards to the deck that are absolutely core that you will never take out. Narrowing down the list in this game is difficult, making setting the core of your deck a challenge. Using this method you need to be conservative with your resources, often undercutting the counts of cards you run. An expansion on this method is the not focus on card counts, but making sure the deck has singletons of all of the core cards. Breaking down cards into their types further helps imagining this step, and focusing on key synergy pieces can also ease this step. You can also include options that may not be quite core but very close to it in the sideboard, allowing you to review and add or subtract core cards easier.
With the premise solidly set, here is a core I whipped up for a Ochaco I list. I kept most counts low, though the notable non-singletons are Future Charge, due to usually wanting duplicates to compound the draw effect, while Back Alley Haymaker and Repeated 100% Smash form the backbone of the deck through sheer power. Passing The Torch is also included in multiples due to being reliable card advantage that you can double up on with Repeated.
Other cards in the list show the general staples that are almost guaranteed to find slots in the deck. Tight Lipped and Floating Around My Babies provide the lineup with additional damage to go along with the aggressive gameplan, while Release and Cooperation Offer are the best defensive options on Life. New Training Method, Lost In Thought, and Keeping Eri Safe are all fantastic utility options, and are likely to stay in varying counts through towards the final list. Plus Ultra also finds a home as an offensive and defensive piece, while Zero Gravity Lift lets me double-dip on Ochaco’s response to zoop an attack to momentum.
The sideboard includes a bunch of options that I considered though deemed were not core. This varies from defensive options such as I’ll Protect You, Rescue Completed, and Ruthless Mockery, to offensive options such as First Villain Encounter, The Future Is Now!, and attacks that aren’t core yet can be highly impactful, such as Home Run Comet, Spiral Blasts, and Cannon Blast.
Core cards usually stay throughout variations, though sometimes they need to be reduced or removed entirely due to not synergizing with the final gameplan you settle on. Oftentimes I end up cutting what I assumed were core attacks simply because the deck ended up in a direction that didn't support them as well. This doesn't mean to play loose with the concept of establishing a core, but a warning that what you believe may be a core card can change throughout the deckbuilding process.
Once you have your core settled you go through your options and add the most impactful cards to your list. Usually this starts with finalizing rough counts of your core cards, using the one-third attack ratio to guide the size of your deck. With lists often ending around 60 cards, having approximately 20 attacks is a good number to start with. If you don’t fill out all of your attack slots that is fine, as it lets you know how many flex slots you have within the deck. Repeating the process is similar for foundations, get rough counts and figure out how much free space you have for other foundations or tech cards you have the option of running. Again using the sideboard as a holding space is a great resource to review your options.
One key thing during actualization is realizing what unique options you have available to you. Rewind Throttle is another punch I can recur while doubling as an additional committal tool and hand filter. Ochaco also offers access to reliable momentum, meaning Echo attacks are often online, giving me further ways to multiply my offense. Cannon Blast gives another outlet to commit the board for a massive attack, which can be recooped with the readying of Repeated 100% Smash.
Figuring out what cards you want in your core can be difficult, so another way to start working towards a list is what I call the “pile” method where you add every card you could consider to a list with rough counts. This lets you review all of your potential options and packages you can consider running, and evaluate them compared to each other.
Once you have your pile assembled it is time to make some cuts. The best way to do this is to separate the cards into packages or uses, and understanding their purpose within your deck. Keeping counts of defensive, offensive, and utility options helps with maintaining a balanced deck. Don’t worry too much about card counts currently, just separating the cards into their various uses and synergies.
From here is where you have to make cuts, evaluating cards and removing the least impactful ones. One way is to look at the packages you have and identify which are the least core to your gameplay. In the example pile of Ochaco I, you can see I have a sizable health gain package, with options like Recovery Girl’s Kiss, Experimenting On Quirks, Nejire-Chan Of The Big 3, Energy Suction, Encouraging Training Partner, and Carbo Loading. The goal of this is to enable Carbo Loading as a way to consistently pump the damage of our moves, and with enough consistency tools to continue stringing out.
I also have a plethora of card advantage slots, with Passing The Torch, Any Means Necessary, New Training Method, and Wild Wild Pussycats giving me even more access to cards within the deck, letting me drown the rival in resources. Ryukyu Agency Trainees and New Training Method let me actually access any foundations I draw, while Preparing For Battle is an additional filter to find the preferable cards for a matchup, which also combo’s nicely with both Repeated 100% Smash to access the effect more, while also combo’ing with Any Means Necessary and Wind-Up Punch to enable both of those cards.
In the attacks I have Home Run Comet, one of the best dunks in this character, while also running Meteor Shower as an additional discard outlet and fuel for large attack turns. Rejuvenating Smash also finds its way into here as a generally powerful card which is further on the life gain theme.
After cutting down the deck, this is the final product from this phase. You should always leave the actualization phase with a playable deck, and before we move onto the next step, let me recap the process so far. The concept manifested quickly as an Ochaco I deck running a variety of punches that she has access too, as being able to loop Repeated 100% Smash is one of the most powerful things you can do in the format. From there the Premise took shape as an aggressive deck using above-the-curve value attacks in order to maintain more resources then the rival while also maintaining the blowout potential of this character. Finally in Actualization, the deck took its final form with a healthy life gain package to enable Carbo Loading as a powerful offensive steroid, while having plenty of consistency tools to find all of the perfect hands to facilitate the gameplan through a vast quantity of card advantage effects and ways to build them to take full advantage of all the resources I can amass.
With the actualization step mostly finished, there are a few small things to keep in mind that aren’t entirely necessary but will help in the future. The first is having balanced block zones as it helps you consistently defend. I am in the camp of “run the good cards first, worry about block zones second”, as I prefer playing cards that are powerful and widely applicable. Of course I look to try and have semi-balanced block zones, though I won’t go out of my way to fill them out unless they are egregiously unbalanced. Another note is that certain decks are able to cheat having unbalanced block zones, such as how much card velocity and advantage yuou have. Characters like Overhaul and Kurogiri II also get a single perfect block each turn, further reducing their need for entirely balanced block zone coverage.
The second thing to keep in mind is having a sideboard of options you could consider for your deck. Not only will this keep your decklist fluid, it also allows you to have changes to keep in mind for the future. Speaking of which…
Refinement
The last step of the deckbuilding process is either the longest or shortest step depending on how much work you put in. Once you have a deck from the actualization phase, the natural next step is to playtest it. This is where the refinement phase comes in, as you tinker and make changes on your list depending on how everything plays out in actual games.
As someone who builds too many decks to feasibly devote a ton of time into this step, I have to hone my actualization skills even more, which again comes from a metric butt-ton of experience, not only building but also playing. My lists are often decently refined leaving actualization, as ratios are something I have spent a lot of time practicing and tinkering with.
One of the best techniques to refine decks is a method called “counting spots”, where you have cards in mind that are options but not included in your deck, and during games noting down when they would be more effective than when is in your deck. This doesn’t simply boil down to finding every situation that X card is better than Y card, but finding specific instances where X card would have made a game-changing impact in game. You also need to keep in mind about when X card would underperform, which can be done during play by consistently analyzing the game and counting how many times the card is not impactful as well.
When counting spots you not only keep to keep in mind what cards outside of your deck can offer, but also what cards in your deck are giving you. Oftentimes this can manifest as a specific include not pulling its weight, and identifying and counting how often it is worse than options you are not running. This not only makes it easy when considering swapping cards in and out, but also helps you evaluate if you should be running that card at all.
Examples in the Ochaco list that I need to keep in mind is not only how often Carbo Loading matters, but how many options I have of making it relevant through all of the health gain pieces. I may not be running enough cards to enable it to ready itself, or all of the health gain may not be impactful enough and would be better served running other options. The other example would be the small discard package, with Any Means Necessary requiring Preparing For Battle or Meteor Shower to activate the response, while Rejuvenating Smash also plays off of this synergy due to wanting you to discard a card during it. The biggest limiting factor is that Life doesn’t have many discard outlets, so keeping an eye on this package and how it performs is another thing I need to keep track of.
Again, refinement can be a quick or short process. Sometimes you end up with a deck you are satisfied with quickly, and other times it may be a long journey before you have a deck in a place you are content with. Refinement also isn’t entirely separate from Actualization, as getting a playable list requires some amount of refining, so these two steps are heavily intertwined. Decks can also go from refinement back to actualization, if you have a list that obviously isn’t working and need to go back to the drawing board, making these last two steps fluid with each other.
With the deckbuilding process defined, the further extrapolation of this is to prepare for large events, as the point of a game is to play it. Preparation is a core component of the entire process, and it helps shape each step, sometimes to varying degrees. The biggest part is having a read on the meta and knowing what is strong and what to prepare for, as well as where in the meta you want to reside. Whether you are looking to play one of the proven strong decks of the format or something more unusual, keeping the most impactful cards in mind will further level up your deckbuilding. Some tech options may lend themselves to certain formats, with Faith’s Shield and Evade And Copy being notable excludes from my deck as ways to be prepared for the Mirio matchup.
The End..?
Something to remember is that you can sink countless hours into theorycrafting and deckbuilding, but it doesn't amount to much unless you actually hone your skills by playing the game. I've sunk thousands of hours into Pokémon, and have several achievements to show for it. All of my preparation for that regional back in 2013 wasn't for naught, as I went on to win that tournament for the second year in a row, a crowning achievement for my last year in that age division, as the following year I would age up into the Masters Division. The largest part of why I succeeded was the time and dedication I put into the preparation of the event, mostly from the teambuilding side.
I hope this helped you upgrade your deckbuilding skills, and as the prominent deckbuilder in the community, this article was a long time coming. I love discussing theory with people, and find great joy in sharing my knowledge with others. I may make a follow up article down the line, but this should be a suitable starting point for anyone looking to level up their building. As always, thanks for tuning in, and until next time!
Do you have any articles you’d like to see? Any topics you wish were discussed more? Any questions, comments, or feedback on this article? Well let me know down below! And if you enjoyed the article, feel free to leave a tip at my Ko-fi.
Have any card game needs? Well visit UnFunStuff to stock up on any TCG supplies or cards, as well as to preorder the next set, Jetburn, releasing November 17th!
Great article! Two thoughts - one big piece of the Actualization phase fire me is cross pollinating with other people who are in a similar space to you. Tim Keefe just happened to play a Life punches Ochaco on the WWW last week when I commentated, in this case, but in general I love grabbing decks from tournament results or whatever and seeing how their pieces fit together, if there are synergies I might steal, etc
And the other thought is something I picked up from some ancient Magic article - related to "counting spots", if you have a cooperative playtest partner, you can just cheat! I did this with an Air Toru2 deck recently - I had thought of…